St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-07-23

But the absence of the corset does presup-
pose the presence of dress, ideal in other
respects The primitive blanket is not con-
venient and seldom graceful. Writers have
at different times and in divers places be-
come enthusiastic over the dress of the
Greeks and the Persians, the japanese and
the Turks, but all these representative ma
tionalities are falling into line and gradually
adopting the capricious costume of Europe,
particularly as it emanates from France and
England.
Excepting individually, do not think we
shall be able to evolve dress faster than the
natural evolution of the race permits This
is because the general consensus of thought
and action creates a standard which the ma
jority accept and which they bend Their
efforts to reach. 1t is an individual OF more
than usual force and originality who takes
new departure and attracts such followers as
hear of, and are in harmony with his
thought.
Rosamond Dale Owen, the daughter of
Robert Dale Owen, bright thinker and
active worker. has evolved out of her own
inner consciousness q dress which IN Eng
land received from Lady Harberton the title
of the Dale Owen Robe" 1t grew out OF
determination to get rid of the restraints OF
the corset and the modern dress, and ind
something which should not interfere, by
the constant necessity for change, with lit
erarv life and work. The first results were
crude enough, as they naturally would be,
for it was not the love of an artistic soul
which prompted her effort, but Impotence
of the burden which dress put upon her life
But there was enough of natural love OF
beauty to prompt her to satisfy something OF
its cravings; and 80 she tried, and tried,
until she obtained result satisfactory to
herself, and which has admirers and imlta-
tors.
Mrs Emily Pfeiffer, the English authoress,
fell back upon the Greek idea in her endeavor
to provide herself with beautiful and per-
manent gown. The motive in this case was
more the love of the beautiful than the de-
sire for use, and Mrs. Pfeitfer has succeeded
in adapting the Greek idea to her own dress
so well, that in a room full of modlshly
dressed ladies she is not conspicuously un-
like them, excepting that she would be pro-
nounced more stately and graceful. But
then Mrs Pfeiffer has the advantage Of a tall,
elegant figure and intellectual face, which
still holds traces of the high type of beauty
which distinguished it in youth.
These individualized costumes, which have
been worn in beth cases without change for
a number of years, are alike in one respect,
in having, as a foundation an underdress
which serves as a lining, and upon which
the overdress is mounted. Mrs. Pfeiffer can
make her upper dress out of large square
of any soft, gracefully draping materials-a
grape or chuddah shawl, for example Miss
Ovens is shaped to the figure by the shir-
ring at the throat and little cutting about
the arms In Mrs. Pfeiffer's dress it is the
underdress which is high to the throat-in
Miss Owens it is the overdress which shows
the throat finish. Mrs. Jeness Miller has
nothing original about the cut of her dress;
she has simply adopted Lady Harberton's
idea Of trousers instead of an undersklrt, but
does not shorten her dress skirt as Lady
Harberton does, and simply discharges cor
sets and bustles as LucNsStone, Abby May,
and the whole school of Boston reformers
have done for twenty-five years. But in
getting rid of what seemed to them objec-
tionable, they did not develop or revive
anything that was really beautiful or grace
full. They ignored fashion, but made no
effort to reconcile it.
The modern basque was the first efo:t to
properly shape the waist since the days OF
the moyen-age bodice, which nodded it.
The short Empire waist displaced and
cramped it; the long-pointed stomacher
forced it down upon the abdomen; the short
gown or sacque was almost shapeless; the
Spencer marked line but did not define
the form of the waist; and it was not until
the basque had been developed and per-
fected and its possibilities suggested by such
writers as Louis Blanc, who insisted that no
bodice should be considered perfect that did
not clearly shape and define the swelling
outline of the waist, that the beauty OF
natural form began to be perceived.
The first basques were square, loose and
ugly over the hips; loose and ungraceful at
the back, which was very broad. The
shoulders were long and low binding the
arms, which could only be raised with diff
Guilty. The appearance was that OF gar
ment, or part of dress much larger and
looser than the basque of to-day, but which
was not at all so pleasant or comfortable for
wear. The gradual improvement in cut
eliminated in the tight, tailor-made suit, and
this developed the more flexible Jersey
The jersey dress, consisting of plated skirt,
Jersey waist and soft silk sash knotted on
the sides, is perfect dress for young girl.
The underlying effort now in dress for
women is toward lightness and fexibility.
The corset is bound to extinction or improve
ment.. The manufacture of dress fabrics has
reached point which causes little to be de-
sired; what we want is less cutting and more
grace in the working out Of design. The corset
has been multiplied of late years, but nearly
all are bad, badly shaped and made of stiff,
bad materials, which become more unyield-
ing by the amount of stitching and the cheap
substitutes for whalebones added to them.
The right material has not yet been found
for corsets or corset waists. It ought to be
yielding, plant, soft and pleasant to the
touch, not hard and stiff like the cotton and
coutille Of which the majority of waists and
corsets are made. We shall have cause for
thankfulness when we have found and can
keep good and real thing in these days of
shams, and that is what we must try to &C
complish, leaving the ideal to a future that
will deal with less hard and stern facts than
| those that face the majority of us at present.